The Fifth Woman

Henning Mankell

Brilliant! I loved this book, the characters, the story, the plot, the way it was written. Psychological stuff the Swedish way, meaning a bit depressing, slow and always with a hint of melancholy. Loved it. The way the characters unfold, nothing too exciting nothing to spectacular, but real human beings with their own problems and their own way to cope with their police work. This is a story told in a slow pace (the book has 590 pages in the hardcover version). Time is taken to unfold the story but not boring for one minute, this books really forces you to read slow and let every sentence sink in, I thought it very well written with beautiful almost poetic sentences.(wish I could read the original) Also I do believe if you like fast and flashing detectives and don't dig the depressing Swedish way you shouldn't pick up this book. If you like slow pace and not overly psychoanalysed yet well digged into the Swedish "culture" and living, this is a must read. It's not really a "whodunit" but more a character/culture study based on a policeman and his colleagues pursuing a very well motivated killer (whom you cannot dislike either!). I don't know if the series "Beck" was ever broadcasted in the States or UK, that was a Swedish police/detectives series with that typical Swedish style also, depressing, very rough and rude sometimes but always very human.